Singer songwriter Laura Repo drops by the NSTS studios this week with a vinyl copy of her new record This Is My Room. She also brought her guitar, and she treats us to a song from the album, “Too Soon To Miss You”.  Check it out.

Repo’s playlist:

Billie Holliday – I Thought About You

Koko Taylor – Honky Tonky

Liz Phair – Stratford on Guy

Murray McLachlan – Down By The Henry Moore

John Holt – Treasure of Love

Joan Armatrading – Get in Touch With Jesus

Dolores Keane and John Faulkner – Johnny Lovely Johnny   

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Welcome back to my chat with storied drummer David Quinton Steinberg. Last week we didn’t get to his songs, and so this week we get right into his playlist. 

The insights and stories continue as David recounts his fondness for his favourite Beatles track, Stiv Bators’ personal conspiracy theories, his first encounter with Frank Zappa, who the last real rock star is in his opinion, his chat with Gene Simmons, the grim details behind Rush’s “Nobody’s Hero”, Bowie’s connection to punk, and David’s “Karmic Boomerang” theory.         

Steinberg’s playlist:

The Beatles – Penny Lane

Badfinger – Baby Blue

Frank Zappa – Peaches En Regalia

David Bowie – Life On Mars

Dead Boys – Sonic Reducer

Rush – Nobody’s Hero

Blair Packham – Proof     

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This week’s NSTS guest has played drums with The Mods, punk legends Stiv Bators and the Dead Boys, and then Strange Advance and The Jitters. Now, he’s Rush’s lawyer. His name is David Quinton Steinberg, and he obviously has a lot to talk about. 

Which is why this is only part one of our chat. We don’t even get to David’s songs until part two for all of the amazing stories and insights he shares about hanging out with Dee Dee Ramone, getting spit on during shows, playing The Horseshoe during The Garys era, and what it was really like to be at the forefront of the punk and new wave movement as it was unfolding. Don’t miss this.  

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Bermudian songstress Heather Nova is my guest this week on NSTS. She grew up on a sailboat in the Caribbean, and her songs appear on the soundtracks of The Crow and I Am Sam, and on shows like Dawson’s Creek. Her new record, called Pearl, drops on June 28.

Heather’s list is full of skin-vibrating tunes, and we chat about Kris Kristofferson’s advice to Joni Mitchell, Heather’s reggae musician brother Mishka, seeing Patti Smith live, Neil Young’s guitar solos, and our introductions to Kate Bush. Next time she’s bringing her guitar.  

Nova’s playlist:

Jeff Buckley – Lover, You Should Come Over

Neil Young – Like A Hurricane

Patti Smith – Dancing Barefoot

Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill

Joni Mitchell – All I Want

Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees

Mishka – Above The Bones

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This week on NSTS, the great Blair Packham returns to the show for his third time, and he brings his guitar with him. We have a lengthy chat about all sorts of things, including No Sleep ’til Sudbury’s upcoming first-ever live audience recording at Hugh’s Room in Toronto on Thursday, June 27 featuring Carole Pope and Rob Preuss (get yer tickets at hughsroomlive.com!)

In addition to the great chat about The Boss, sticking it to The Man, how Tom Petty came up with “Swingin'” on the spot, heroin, and John Prine, he also noodles a Springsteen classic, some of his own tunes, and a Dylan song to close out the show that chokes me up.  

Packham’s playlist:

Bruce Springsteen – The River

Tom Petty – Swingin’

The Isley Brothers – Fight The Power

Public Enemy – Fight The Power

John Hiatt – Learning How To Love You

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Singer songwriter Lily Frost is one in a million. She’s funny, super talented, insightful, and an absolute blast to have on the show. 

Lily’s new record Retro Moderne drops June 7, and we chat about it before getting into the songs that make her skin vibrate, along with all the topics that arise from them – Joni Mitchell’s grumpiness, The Dirts, Pinochet, guys who sing in falsetto, the Seattle Freeze, The Jerky Boys, and the criticality of ‘the swell’. Then we talk about random unrelated stuff for the last portion of the show.  

Frost’s playlist:

Jeff Buckley – Lilac Wine

Jennifer Castle – Sailing Away

Patrick Watson – Lighthouse

Ray Lamontagne – My Own Way

Lhasa de Sela – El Desierto

Chopin – Nocturne #1 in B Flat Minor

Frazey Ford – I’m Done

Staples Singers – Will The Circle be Unbroken 

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You won’t meet many people more genuinely passionate about music than my pal and friend of the show Bob Mayo. He joins me from Massachusetts this week with a new batch of songs that make his skin vibrate, and as always, he enlightens me on a few things.      

Bob can always be counted on to bring in fascinatingly obscure tracks, because he’s a believer in us discovering music we may have never heard of. He also brings in a few of my favourites. On both fronts, the conversation is great – we chat about who REALLY plays lead guitar on the early Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, and KISS records, the most controversial Scorpions album covers, the hard rock band Billy Joel played in, Black Sabbath’s creative challenges, the Golden Earring we didn’t know, spaceships getting swallowed up by black holes, what the greatest rock song of all time really is, and so much more. I love talking to this guy. 

Mayo’s playlist:

Golden Earring – She Flies on Strange Wings  

Aerosmith – Combination    

Rush – Cygnus X-1  

Motorhead – Orgasmatron

Montrose – Space Station #5

Ursa Major – Sinner

Scorpions – We’ll Burn The Sky

Black Sabbath – Megalomania

The Who – Won’t Get Fooled Again

Ramones – I Wanna Be Sedated

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I was delighted to be joined in studio this week by Chalk Circle vocalist and guitarist Chris Tait. I listened to him a lot as a teen (still do), so it was great to have him in for a conversation about his playlist AND my favourite Chalk songs. 

I won’t spoil it, but Chris does something really cool with his playlist here. Every song has a place on the list for a very specific reason, and I was impressed at how the whole thing was carried out. Great stories too, including the fact that he actually argued against having Chalk Circle’s biggest hit, “April Fool”, as a single – he didn’t even want it on the record! Really great conversation.    

Tait’s playlist:

Bay City Rollers – Saturday Night

Led Zeppelin – Black Dog

Rush – Working Man

The Ramones – I Wanna Be Sedated

The Skids – Into The Valley

Echo & The Bunnymen – The Cutter

Talk Talk – Life’s What You Make It

David Bowie – Space Oddity

Matthew Sweet – Divine Intervention

Blinker The Star – September Already

Earth, Wind, & Fire – September

Vullpeck – Dean Town         

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Juno award-winning musician, producer, songwriter, and actor Marc Jordan joins me this week to talk about the songs that make his skin vibrate. 

Marc has written songs for Rod Stewart, Diana Ross, Bette Midler, Cher, and others, and we talk about that and some other stuff too – like why we love the art that we do, the band he plays in with Murray McLauchlan and Ian Thomas, how “Walk On The Wild Side” is a missing link between musical genres, and his new solo record, Both Sides. Check it out at https://nosleeptilsudbury.org

Jordan’s playlist:

Madeleine Peyroux – You’re Going to Make Me Lonesome When You Go

Rod Stewart – This

Chet Baker – Almost Blue

Marc Jordan – Walk On The Wild Side

Renee Fleming and YoYo Ma – Mew York Tendaberry

NIIA – Last Night in Las Felez 

Tedeschi Trucks Band – Midnight in Harlem

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Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome The Kings’ guitarist and founder, Mister Zero! 

Everybody knows The Kings megahit “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ To Glide”. This week, band founder Mister Zero drops by to talk about how the song came together, why it’s two songs in one, Bob Ezrin’s contribution to the recording to the song, The Kings appearance on American Bandstand, the night he and Kings singer David Diamond were out with Blondie’s Debbie Harry at an Iggy Pop show, who his favourite guitar player is, and so much more. Check it out!   

Zero’s picks:  

Nat King Cole – Stardust

Bruce Springsteen – Sandy (4th of July Asbury Park)

The Beatles – She Loves You

Led Zeppelin – Whole Lotta Love

Glen Campbell – Gentle On My Mind

Frank Sinatra – One For My Baby

Blondie – Rapture

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